Chapter 454: Evil God Festival · Houseboat |
On the vast seaside sands, countless offerings were running with all their might. They ran until blood seeped from their seven orifices, ran until their breathing felt like it was burning, and ran until their bodies issued alarms, yet they never stopped.
These offerings looked at the beautiful moon and fireworks in the sky, a trace of a dazed and relieved smile pulling at their bloody mouths.
As long as they ran out of here, they would be completely free.
Outside, a beautiful world where they would never again suffer was waiting for them!
Ahead, the Mifune family servants standing on the fire watchtower were coldly monitoring these escaping offerings. One picked up a phone: “Mifune-sama, the offerings have escaped Luming County. Should we release their [Anchors] to them now?”
“Release them,” Mifune’s voice came through the phone. “Be careful not to let them come into contact with the old offerings that have run out now. The adults of the Seven Great Families are currently hunting; do not let them be disappointed.”
When the servant heard “Seven Great Families,” he glanced back at the mountain.
From afar, one could only glimpse a bit of firelight near the shrine. Instead of reporting the fire, the servant on the fire watchtower smiled: “After tonight, the Kitahara family will be completely removed from the Eight Great Families, right?”
Mifune also followed with a laugh: “I will watch closely as the Kitahara family is burned to the ground.”
“No need.” Mifune curled his lips. “Because the most valuable offering is already in my hands.”
“Tonight, I will sacrifice him to the Evil God.”
“Whiz— Bang—!!”
Huge fireworks rose from behind the watchtower, exploding at the highest point of the mountain peak. Under the sudden burst of colored light from the fireworks, one could glimpse the people of the Mifune family on the mountaintop holding weapons, warily moving downward toward the shrine, while the cornered Kitahara family members below the mountain ran toward the peak in panic.
“We are entering the shrine.” The person leading the Mifune family team turned around and shouted sternly to the people behind him, “Everyone, keep your skin tight (stay alert) and blindfold your eyes.”
“If anyone accidentally catches a glimpse of that corpse and turns into a monster, don’t say I didn’t warn you in advance!”
“Yes!”
The Mifune family members were well-trained; they pulled a thick piece of black cloth from their pockets, raised their hands to blindfold their eyes, and stepped into the territory of the shrine.
The leader took a deep breath: “Mifune-sama said that the offering, Bai Six, has already been sent outside the shrine. What we need to do next is capture the offering Bai Six, bring him in for sacrifice, and tonight’s mission will be complete.”
“Move fast. After the Funamiya Night Festival is over, the other lords will also bring the old offerings they hunted up for sacrifice. We must complete the sacrifice of offering Bai Six before then!”
On the small path at the foot of the mountain.
“Quick, quick!” the servants exclaimed tremblingly, “Ladies and masters of the Kitahara family, please tear off pieces of clothing to cover your eyes!”
“We are almost at the shrine!”
“Please, whatever you do, do not open your eyes. If you see the Evil God in the shrine, you will either become an offering and go mad and commit suicide, or you will become a monster to be hunted by others!”
The people on the mountain groped their way forward with cautious steps, while the people below the mountain stumbled as they climbed upward. All of them approached the shrine with eyes tightly shut, their faces uniformly wearing expressions of dread and horror.
Standing in front of the shrine, Bai Six held his hands behind his back and approached Bai Liu bit by bit. He smiled with eyes curved: “What an interesting scene.”
“Everyone, for the sake of their own desires, is closing their eyes and stumbling toward the Evil God they worship every day, yet fear so much.”
The moment Bai Six’s voice fell, the whip behind him lashed out abruptly, sweeping toward Bai Liu.
Bai Liu raised his hand to block. What appeared in his hand was a short dagger. The dagger was thrust into the ring-link of the bone whip; Bai Liu struck inward, sending the dagger spinning down along the whip, forcing Bai Six to let go.
He took half a step back, the whip in his hand vanishing, and when he raised his hand again, the whip reappeared. Bai Six swept the tail end of the whip toward Bai Liu, and in the process of sweeping, he twisted the whip, causing the bone spurs to deploy with a shua.
Bai Liu’s face held no expression. He spun the dagger in his hand, transforming it into a monkey claw. He caught Bai Six’s bone-spurred long whip with his bare hand and yanked it violently toward himself. Bai Six, who was holding the whip, was pulled off balance toward Bai Liu.
While falling, the bone whip in Bai Six’s hand vanished again. He flashed backward, dodging the movement of Bai Liu’s monkey claw aimed at his throat and other vital points. Then, as he spun back around, the long whip reappeared at his waist, and he lashed it toward Bai Liu’s face.
Bai Liu dodged to the side. The monkey claw scraped across Bai Six’s shoulder, leaving four startling claw marks.
Bai Six clutched his instantly bloodied shoulder and retreated. He looked up at the Bai Liu opposite him and suddenly laughed: “Should I say, as expected of the [Me] who could make the Evil God suffer enough to walk out of the divine hall?”
“You are much stronger than me.”
Bai Liu looked at the wounded Bai Six with an indiscernible gaze: “Is this your first time in a game instance?”
“You deduced it so quickly.” Bai Six said with a smile, “Evil God Festival · Houseboat is indeed my first instance. But I’m very curious; my performance just now shouldn’t have looked like a novice player. How did you conclude that?”
Bai Liu merely looked levelly at Bai Six. He didn’t answer Bai Six’s question directly, but instead lowered his gaze to the bone whip in Bai Six’s hand: “If this is your first instance, then you haven’t cleared the game and shouldn’t have item rewards.”
“Where did this bone whip come from?”
“How about a one-for-one exchange?” Bai Six looked at Bai Liu with a smile. “You answer my question, and I’ll answer yours.”
“You have no skills, so it must be your first game.” Bai Liu answered very calmly and curtly. “My turn. Where did the bone whip come from?”
Bai Six curled his lips. He lifted the black bone whip in his hand and shook it: “Aren’t there only a few ways to obtain items in the game?”
“The first is rewards; the second is monster drops.”
The smile on his face grew wider and wider: “In the Evil God Festival of my timeline, I got the key, entered the shrine map, and found the Evil God NPC.”
“But I didn’t feel pain when facing Him, so I was unable to awaken the Evil God.”
“However, since this Evil God NPC had a face I really disliked—He reminded me of a very hateful person I met in reality—and plus, this NPC refused to wake up, preventing me from advancing the game progress, I was very unhappy. I used this sleeping Evil God NPC to reenact what I did to that person in reality.”
“Consequently, this bone whip dropped from His body.”
Bai Liu seemed to realize something instantly; his expression went still. He slowly lifted his eyelids to look directly at Bai Six, questioning him word by word: “You cut him open and ripped out his spine?”
“You could say that.” Bai Six shrugged. “I originally planned to take some other things he dropped, but they were too fragmented and didn’t look very useful, so I just left them there.”
“However, he grows back on the second night, or rather, he refreshes. So I cut him open for many days before picking out this most complete one.”
Bai Six giggled as he raised the bone whip in his hand, tilting his head to look at Bai Liu: “How is it? Looks pretty good, right?”
Kitahara Aoi, who was standing to the side not daring to approach, glanced down the mountain. Her expression tightened as she looked at Bai Liu and suddenly spoke: “Bai Six! The people of the Kitahara family are coming up!”
Kitahara Souta also came scrambling down from the mountaintop in a panic: “Bai Six-sama, the people of the Mifune family are about to come out from the shrine!”
By the time Kitahara Souta ran in front of Bai Liu, his gaze shifted back and forth between Bai Liu and [the other] Bai Liu in shock several times, his eyes spinning into two circles: “Eh?! Why are there two Bai Six-samas?!”
Kitahara Aoi facepalmed speechlessly: “Has this guy’s memory not fully merged?”
*(T/N: I fear Aoi is another NPC I’m getting attached to and that never ends well.)*
Bai Liu stared straight at the Bai Six opposite him, his tone colder than ever before: “Souta, take Kitahara Aoi and her jiejie and leave through the small side path. I’ve told you about that path; it’s the one I sometimes take to the shrine.”
Souta snapped to attention immediately: “Yes!”
“Over at the houseboat, both the new and old offerings are escaping.” Bai Liu slightly shifted his gaze, using the corner of his eye to glance at Kitahara Aoi. “Kitahara Aoi, your jiejie was contacted by the Kitahara family to lure you out, but whether she sincerely wants to save you is something you should be able to judge for yourself, right?”
Aoi took a deep breath and tightened her grip on her jiejie’s hand: “Mm!”
“You and your jiejie are safe.” Bai Liu continued, “During the escape, you will encounter many other offerings. If you want to save them, use your jiejie as a contact point to help them shift their escape routes.”
“That way, they won’t encounter the [Anchors] arranged for them by the Mifune family.”
Bai Liu looked up, meeting Kitahara Aoi’s eyes: “But this world is not as beautiful as the Kitahara family taught you.”
“Besides these Anchors, there are many, many more people who want to deceive you and feed on your pain.”
“This is a cruel world.”
Kitahara Aoi answered tremblingly: “I know.”
Bai Liu gave a calm “mm.” He turned his head back to look at Bai Six, who was constantly retreating, wanting to head into the shrine. He unhurriedly raised his whip: “It’s good that you know.”
“Then, next, learn to live for those who do not feed on your pain, but who will shed tears of pain for you, and for whom you will shed tears of pain.”
“They are the kind of fools you learned about in your textbooks, the ones who can give you a beautiful life.”
For some reason, Aoi’s tears began to fall. She choked out an answer, not knowing which question she was answering:
“I will.”
“I definitely will, Bai Six-laoshi!”
